Customer relationship management (CRM) solutions are commonly used by local government agencies to manage citizen requests and further communication with residents. While the use of software solutions that span the entire agency and are available to multiple departments sounds like a luxury affordable only to large municipalities, CRM platforms are not only beneficial for small cities, but more affordable and accessible than you might think.

Local government is all about providing the most impact with limited resources. In a perfect world, agencies could fund every project, improve the lives of all citizens and further the economic interests of their municipality – but in the real world, every agency must figure out where to prioritize their limited resources in order to make the most impact. Small city governments know this better than anyone as they tend to have fewer resources in terms of finances and labor than their large city counterparts.

For those governments looking to do more with less, CRM platforms can be a beneficial tool. From maximizing staff time to pinpointing ongoing trends in the city to breaking down barriers for citizens to access their government, here’s a look at some of the benefits of CRM for small cities.

1. Increase Staff Efficiency

It’s a common misconception that CRMs are only useful for municipalities with a large number of employees. The more staff you have, generally the harder it is to communicate efficiently between departments or for leadership to have the visibility it needs into each department’s ongoings. While this is true, it is also true that CRMs are beneficial for cities with smaller numbers of staff, too.

Small cities tend to employ fewer staff members – and often those individuals play multiple roles within the framework of their government agency. A department head could also be the frontline employee who is responsible for getting the day-to-day work done. In these situations, each individual employee’s time becomes more valuable because of their scarcity – and anything that helps them maximize their time can be of great value.

CRM solutions can help small cities by freeing up staff from mundane tasks, allowing them to focus on the work that matters most. Thanks to automations and triggers, many time-consuming repetitive tasks that make up many department workflows happen automatically.

With a CRM, citizens can submit their own requests via an online portal. The request is then automatically routed to the appropriate department as a new work order. Each municipality can set timelines for tasks to be completed in the system, so that if a department isn’t making progress quickly enough, the system will automatically send a reminder that the service order needs to be followed up on. Once the department has completed the service order, the system will automatically inform the citizen that their request has been completed. All of which results in fewer tasks that require someone to remember and complete, resulting in greater efficiency for staff with less human error along the way. Read more about how automations work.

2. Better Connect with Citizens

Some municipalities worry that adopting a software solution with automations means they will be offering a less personal experience for citizens interacting with their local government. We think you’ll find the opposite to be true! Studies have shown that citizens want digital methods to access their local government – and supplying them with the means to do so can increase citizen satisfaction.

CRM solutions can also improve local government customer service. When a citizen wants to know the status of their request, there is no worse answer to give than “I don’t know.” With a CRM solution, your municipality can empower anyone in the system, from the front desk of city hall up to the mayor’s office, to look up a case quickly and provide an immediate answer on the status of their request – without having to loop anyone else in or send an email that might take days to receive a reply.

CRM solutions can even help you measure the satisfaction of citizens’ interactions with you thanks to integrations with customer satisfaction survey software. Once a service work order has been closed, the citizen who originally submitted the request can be automatically emailed a customer satisfaction survey to collect responses on where processes are working and where they can be improved.

3. Collect Data to Better Prioritize Resources

Every local government agency operates on limited resources. When it isn’t possible to fully fund every initiative, city leadership has to make hard decisions about where to allocate the resources they do have in order to make the most difference. By leveraging data, leadership can identify trends, locate hotspots that need extra attention, and make more informed decisions about what initiatives to prioritize.

CRM solutions can help small cities gather that data needed for analysis, whether it’s identifying areas of town with a higher volume of complaints or noticing that certain steps in a workflow take a higher than average time to complete. And with real-time reporting, data is immediately visible, helping to provide increased operational transparency. Read more about data-driven decision making in local government.

Real-Life Success: Glendale Heights, IL

Comcate’s CRM / 311 software is suitable for municipalities of all sizes, from cities with 125,000+ people to Glendale Heights, IL, a village of 30,000 in the Chicago suburbs. Glendale Heights was looking for a way to streamline communications and better track resident concerns and complaints. This was especially important for the Village’s elected officials, who wanted the ability to provide their constituents with updates on concerns or complaints they had reported.

“Our biggest priority was the ability to track everything,” said David Genty, Public Affairs Coordinator for the Village. “That way if a resident asks any of our board members to follow up on something, it’s easy to reference back and say ‘This is where it’s at. We already have a staff person looking into the matter.’” Read Glendale Heights’ story.

Comcate: CRM Software for Small City Governments

As a company founded by local government leaders, Comcate believes in better government for all – and that software has the ability to take us there. That’s why we developed affordable, flexible CRM software for municipalities of all sizes. Through tools like FAQ features, workflow automations, email notifications and communications and more, we make it easy for residents to find what they need and staff to more efficiently do their job. And with flexible pricing, even smaller municipalities will find that CRM software is within their budget.

Interested in leveraging technology to better serve your residents? Schedule a demo today by filling out the form below.

Schedule a Meeting with Comcate Today!

Learn how Comcate can help make government delivery simple, and offer a modern digital experience to help you increase transparency, efficiency, and performance across your departments. If you have any questions about implementing our software, please fill out the form below or call us directly at (415) 632-1248.

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